Quitting School Ball For Full Time Travel (In Middle School)

[GunnerShotgun]

Had an interesting discussion with some parents tonight regarding school ball vs. travel ball. The back story is a travel team is split up in 3 Middle Schools in two different grades (7th and 8th). Four of the teams without the two pitchers are terrible, the two teams with pitchers are decent.

The middle school coaching is atrocious by any standards and the scores for the four bad teams are usually 20-4, 27-3, etc.

The question is are they better off quitting school ball (for good) and playing travel full time?

The pros are that the 7.5 hours that are currently used as middle school practice could be used for TB practice. The players would be playing TB tournaments and practicing through the week as a team. They currently don't practice for TB as Middle school games and practices dominate the week. There is concern that the players are regressing as the middle school practices and games are sub par.

The cons are they would forgo representing playing for their schools and the benefits that coincide with that.

Should they tough it out and wait for HS (knowing the drama and politics that dominate HS ball; see the other threads). I personally blame the HS coaches and Middle school coaches for not moving players up a level (or grade) when appropriate.

Anybody quit school ball at an early age and go full time travel for good?

 

[Comp]

Some states shut down travel ball during the hs season for 16 and up.

 

[JAD]

Before you make any decisions I would confirm there are TB tournaments available. Most TB shuts down during the HS season, so opportunities to play may be few and far between.

 

[wichita]

Leave ....leave .....run as fast as you can from middle school ball........ neither of my kids played middle school ball and they turned out good...

 

[fastpitch]

IMO quitting MS Ball for travel ball is fine. I'm assuming u r playing 12/14u which there still should be good comp around for TB.

In our school district MS practice is not beneficial for a higher level TB player. Coaching and general level of play is very weak. They can probably do better things with their time.

 

[00fpdaddy]

Had an interesting discussion with some parents tonight regarding school ball vs. travel ball. The back story is a travel team is split up in 3 Middle Schools in two different grades (7th and 8th). Four of the teams without the two pitchers are terrible, the two teams with pitchers are decent.

The middle school coaching is atrocious by any standards and the scores for the four bad teams are usually 20-4, 27-3, etc.

The question is are they better off quitting school ball (for good) and playing travel full time?

The pros are that the 7.5 hours that are currently used as middle school practice could be used for TB practice. The players would be playing TB tournaments and practicing through the week as a team. They currently don't practice for TB as Middle school games and practices dominate the week. There is concern that the players are regressing as the middle school practices and games are sub par.

The cons are they would forgo representing playing for their schools and the benefits that coincide with that.

Should they tough it out and wait for HS (knowing the drama and politics that dominate HS ball; see the other threads). I personally blame the HS coaches and Middle school coaches for not moving players up a level (or grade) when appropriate.

Anybody quit school ball at an early age and go full time travel for good?

GS, are the students allowed to play up? 7/8th graders given a chance to try out for JV? The difference in ability is drastic between girls who basically work on their skills year round and those who take off the cobwebbs and dust their gloves before the school season starts.

 

[straightleg]

I say let them play it all. Work through different kinds of coach's. Good life lesson. Kids only grow up once. High school is so short.
They only get to do it once. Let them dominate.
one of my 2 daughters tore her acl twice in highschool. Once as a freshman, once as a senior. She missed 2 years of highschool sports.
I say let them play



Straightleg

 

[SoGASoftball]

Ask the girls what they want to do. In my experience, it is fun for them to be with their school friends and they get to show their skills. I would guess it would be a small portion that didn't want to play.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

You know I love school ball, I also believe for the HS run to be a successful one, it must start before you get there. MS ball is a close "taste" of what to expect in HS, that goes for the parents, players, and politics. Learning to deal/dance with the mental side of school ball is better learned ASAP.

My group of TB players "mostly" went to the same MS, the sub par coaching didn't effect them one bit. ( the only experience the MS coach had was 2 years of rec ball ) The coach tried, bless his heart, to do the best he could. But ultimately the girls played MS ball, just like it was TB, in-spite of the coaching.

By the last year of MS, we had a pretty good varsity team. Won the West TN Athletic Conference for the first time in school history. Pounded in 214 runs and only allowed 25, good times!

[/IMG]

 

[00fpdaddy]

your lucky gd, around here ms and jv season you get about 18 games and thats it. No playoffs, no tournamnets. Thats a great article.